A drawer dishwasher may be fully integrated in the kitchen fixtures and the front side may be covered by a panel, e.g. a wooden panel. The drawer dishwasher further has a dishwasher pump, which may be mounted at the rear part of the drawer dishwasher housing or cabinet. The dishwasher pump provides a spray nozzle with hot water, and the spray nozzle usually distributes water upwardly in a washing tub of the drawer dishwasher.
On a fully integrated drawer dishwasher, covered with e.g. a wooden panel, it is not acceptable or at least not desirable, for aesthetic reasons, to have buttons or other interfaces, such as light-emitting diodes or other lamps on the front side of the drawer, which often can be seen on conventional dishwashers.
The lack of buttons and/or other interfaces at the front of the drawer dishwasher presents the person using the drawer dishwasher with difficulties in those cases when the drawer needs to be opened when the dishwasher is turned on, since there are no possibilities to turn the dishwasher off, before opening the drawer. There is however sometimes still a need for the possibility to open the drawer of the drawer dishwasher, while the washing programme is running. The user would then have to pull the drawer open with the risk of getting hot water sprayed from the nozzle splashed onto the user, or at least the risk that hot water splashes out on the floor, since the water pressure from the spray nozzle needs to be quite high in order to properly clean the dishes. This problem is especially large for drawer dishwashers since the drawer comprising the washing tub in which the spray nozzle is arranged, is drawn out when the dishwasher is opened. Therefore, it is important to be able to open the drawer of a drawer dishwasher in a safe way when the dishwasher is turned on, i.e. without the risk of hot water splashing out on the floor or at the person opening the drawer.
EP 0,669,098 A1 discloses a dishwasher of the conventional type with a front door which does not comprise any buttons etc. This document describes a solution for enabling safe inspection and/or control and/or opening of a dishwasher based on equipping a loading door of a dishwasher with a frontal decor-panel, which is substantially hinged on the lower half of the loading door. Thus the frontal panel can be swung in its upper section and retracted from said section of the door. The solution is thus based on the interaction of the frontal panel and the door, i.e. the frontal panel is movable in relation to the door, when displacing the panel a rod arranged in the door will detect this displacement and cause a micro switch to cut the power feed to the dishwasher. Since the solution concerns a loading door of a conventional dishwasher equipped with a frontal panel, which is moveable in relation to this loading door this solution should not be applicable in a drawer dishwasher. The solution also pertains to a separate frontal panel, which is a vulnerable and less stable solution than a fixed front or door in that the connection to the mechanism or power cut off might be exposed to outside wear and fatigue.
JP 2003088488 discloses a latch operation locking/unlocking mechanism in a dishwasher, comprising a locking device with a micro switch which detects a locked/unlocked state of the latch, the switch controls the on/off mechanism of the power supply to the dishwasher pump motor, thereby preventing the water from jetting in the dishwasher, when the washing cabinet is drawn out, i.e. the latch is unlocked, during operation. This document discloses a pull-and-stop operation of the locking/unlocking system. By pull-and-stop is meant that the operation of the dishwasher, i.e. the water pump, is shut off simultaneously as the door or drawer is opened and there is hence a risk that the pump is not properly turned off before the washing cabinet is fully drawn out.
Consequently, there is a need for a locking/unlocking system for a drawer dishwasher, which provides a reliable and stable detection of the opening of the drawer of the drawer dishwasher for a safe shut off of the dishwasher pump and hence the water supply.